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Book 1, Chapter 9
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Tender Is the Night, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Excess, Destruction, and the Failed American Dream
Gender, Mental Illness, and Psychiatry
The Pursuit of Youth and Innocence
Racism and Otherness
Summary
Analysis
Abe—who is very loyal to Dick and Nicole—tells his version of events to Rosemary, recounting how Violet, McKisco, and Tommy had argued in the car and arranged the resulting duel. Tommy “is a watchdog about the Divers” and was angered by Violet’s attempts to spill a secret about them.
Both Abe and Tommy are very loyal to the Divers. The word “watchdog” to describe Tommy, for example, suggests that he is guarding something, perhaps a secret, and offering his protection to the Divers. The reader learns later that this is due to Nicole’s history of ill mental health.
Themes
Abe heads upstairs to check on McKisco, bringing Rosemary with him. McKisco has been drinking all night and looks “puny and cross and white” as he frets about leaving the world without finishing his book or getting his affairs in order. He and Abe discuss the logistics of the duel, and Rosemary asserts that they should call it off, but Mr. McKisco is keen to continue with the dreadful affair in order to impress his wife, Violet.
Fitzgerald explores gender roles here through the depiction of McKisco—a sad, pathetic man—self-indulgently worrying about the legacy he’ll leave behind in the world, should he be killed. In addition, the fact that McKisco intends to carry on with the duel merely to show off for his wife, and to assert a particular kind of physical manhood, reveals how fragile his masculinity is. That is, the same man who just days before violently snapped at his wife, mocking Violet and bossing her around, now worries that he’ll appear a coward to her if he doesn’t attend the duel.
Themes
